-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- On North Halsted Street , between Buckingham and Roscoe in Chicago , a monument stands with a plaque in honor of a brilliant thinker who is as responsible for the way we live our lives today as any person who has ever lived .

His name is Alan Turing , a Brit , and among his many credits and accolades , many historians refer to him as `` the father of computer science . '' When Time magazine listed him among its 100 most influential people of the 20th century , it said `` that everyone who taps at a keyboard , opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing program , is working on an incarnation of a Turing machine . ''

A pretty high honor to say the least . And yet in 1952 , while filing a robbery report with the police , Turing -- the man whose algorithms cracked the Enigma code used by the Nazis in World War II -- found himself arrested at his home in England .

His crime ? Being gay .

Turing was convicted of `` gross indecency , '' a felony in Britain at that time . He was forced to choose between prison and being injected with female hormones , a form of chemical castration .

He reluctantly chose the latter . Despite his accomplishments , he lost his job . And in June 1954 , he lost his will to live . He was 41 .

If the Western world is somewhat haunted by what Steve Jobs might have accomplished had cancer not taken him from us , we should be downright tormented by what we lost from the senseless excommunication of his predecessor .

Turing 's plaque is one of 18 that make up the city 's Legacy Walk , which honors LGBT people who have made a contribution to history . It 's a reminder of where we were and how far we 've come . But as much as it seems the nation is talking about this topic , the fact remains that in much of the United States , it is still legal to fire someone for the same reason that Turing was fired 60 years ago in Britain .

Perhaps the prejudices in our rear view mirror may appear farther away than they actually are .

June is Gay Pride month . So if you find yourself exhausted from all of this gay rights talk and want to leave a not-so-kind comment on a story , remember it 's because of an openly gay man that you even have the technology to do so .

If you 're a black person who gets offended whenever the Civil Rights Movement is mentioned in the same sentence as the fight for gay rights , remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 's close confidant and most influential mentor was an openly gay black man by the name of Bayard Rustin .

And if you ever find yourself wondering `` How come there 's no Straight Pride month ? '' I say the day being straight becomes a crime -- as being gay still is in many parts of the world -- start one .

Gay Pride was not born out of a need to celebrate not being straight but our right to exist without prosecution .

Just as Stokely Carmichael 's `` Black is Beautiful '' became the rallying cry against racism in the 1960s ; just as `` I am woman , hear me roar '' was the anthem against sexism in the 1970s ; `` gay pride '' is the banner that flies over a people whose dignity continues to be put to a vote in 2013 .

News coverage in June may focus on the celebratory nature of Gay Pride parades , but it can not rewrite the history that made these parades an integral part of our survival .

Why is n't there Straight Pride ?

Because Congress has yet to pass a law requiring people to hide the fact they are straight . Because the streets are not filled with children who have been kicked out of their homes for being straight . Because there seems to be a lack of stories in which someone has been beaten , tied to a fence and left to die or shot in the face at point blank range because they were straight .

For this Gay Pride month , Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nevada , said he expects to take up legislation to address workplace discrimination `` soon . '' This month , the Supreme Court may make a ruling on whether or not same-sex couples can marry .

This month , 11-year-old Marcel Neergaard wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed that `` during my first year in middle school , I experienced severe bullying . I was called terrible names that were quite hurtful . At that time , I had just realized that I 'm gay , and the bullies used the word ` gay ' as an insult .

`` This made me feel like being gay was horrible , but my parents told me otherwise . Their support was tremendous . But as powerful as their love was , it could n't fight off all the bullying . I do n't want anyone else to feel the way I did . No one deserves that much pain , no matter who they are . ''

Yeah .

So maybe instead of wondering why there is n't a straight pride month or movement , straight people should be thankful they do n't need one . I 'm sure Turing would have rather filed the police report and stayed home . I 'm sure Marcel would prefer going to school in peace .

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson .

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Alan Turing , `` father of computer science , '' killed himself , `` convicted '' of being gay

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LZ Granderson : 60 years later , it 's legal in parts of U.S. to fire someone for being gay

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LZ : Gay Pride month is a time to celebrate the right to live without persecution

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The day being straight becomes a crime , LZ says , Straight Pride will be born